(This article has been graciously reprinted with permission from the editors of the November issue of Angst Free Folk Music Times.)

And Then There Were Two.

It is a surprise for most people to learn that before the duo success of Knechtel and McLean there was a trio. No musical group starts out fully developed and in this case when the boys started out on the road to folk fame and fortune it was under the banner of Knechtel, Ampersand, McLean. But this was a volatile mix of personalities. McLean, rather free spirted and willing to take the group to the very edge of the map, out to where the edges are frayed and the legend reads “Here be Dragons” struggled with authority and structure which was countered and balanced by Knechtel’s more steady approach. Knechtel, the author of over a thousand songs and having encyclopedic knowledge of hundreds of folk, jazz and pop standards was as fearless as Mclean when it came to performing on stage and always enjoyed whatever path the show took them on during any given performance.

It was or I should say is, not uncommon for Knechtel to stop the show so that he can perform some sleight of hand card trick, magic being his other passion and most nights the set list was forgotten like an old theatre handbill. This freewheeling approach to their stage show left very little room for Ampersand. Ampersand played hand percussion and occasionally acoustic bass and while he did possess a mellifluous singing voice that blended well with Knechtel and recounted the traditional folk harmonies of days gone past he just didn’t fit. Like a troubled middle child wedged between the favour of the first-born and adorability of the baby, he as a personality in the group felt out-of-place and deep down he knew he only was asked to join the group because he owned a station wagon.

He wallowed in self-pity from being overlooked and floundered in self-loathing over failed attempts of the grandiose. His solo album Ampersand Now failed with both critics and audiences and he fell into depression. While Ampersand was recuperating Knechtel and McLean went back out on the road just to pay the rent and found that splitting the money two ways was a lot more profitable than splitting it three. Upon their arrival back home they summoned the lawyers and legally brought to an end Knechtel, Ampersand, McLean. From now on the group would be formally known as Knechtel and McLean. When Ampersand recovered he turned his back on the music business and became a newspaper music critic.

There has never been even the slightest moment given to the thought that someday that Knechtel, Ampersand, McLean would reunite for it is as if they never existed. And if Ampersand late at night pours over faded and yellowed newspaper clippings of his days with the group we’ll never know – he refused to be interviewed for this piece. But for audiences of today they still have the dynamic duo of Knechtel and McLean to revel in.